Police don't suspect foul play in woman's death

Grain Valley police don’t suspect foul play but aren’t ruling it out yet in the death of an Oak Grove woman whose body was found Saturday in Grain Valley.

Amber Jo Bradley-Couch, 28, of Oak Grove was found dead Saturday in Grain Valley by a man out walking his dog about 4:35 p.m. She had been missing since Jan. 19 and had been last seen at the Whiskey Tango bar in Grain Valley.

She was not reported missing until Feb. 6. It was first reported by police that her 1997 green two-door Chevrolet Cavalier was found in late February in Blue Springs, but Grain Valley Police Chief Aaron Ambrose said that car was not related to the incident.

Ambrose said Bradley-Couch was found not far from Whiskey Tango and it didn’t appear that foul play was involved.

“It was not anything that we initially thought looked suspicious at all,” Ambrose said. “We can’t rule (foul play) out just yet, but it doesn’t look like it. There were no gunshot wounds, no strangulation and she doesn’t appear to have been sexually assaulted either.”

Ambrose said that Grain Valley police would wait until a toxicology report comes back to rule on her cause of death and determine how the police would proceed with its investigation.

Ambrose said Bradley-Couch was found not far from where she was last seen at approximately 1 a.m. Jan. 19 at Whiskey Tango. She was found on the northwest corner of a business on a Squire Court, an industrial area cul-de-sac which is just southwest of Whiskey Tango and relatively close to Grain Valley City Hall on Main Street.

“It was kind of weird area out the way where no one usually goes,” Ambrose said of the location of Bradley-Couch’s body. “There’s a field area between Whiskey Tango and there.”

Ambrose also said weather played a part in not finding her sooner.

“She had been covered with snow for quite awhile,” he said. “Because of the cold weather and snow, her body was pretty well preserved.”

The investigation continues. Anyone with information on Bradley-Couch is asked to call the Grain Valley Police Department at 816-847-6250.